Samsung Galaxy S 4 hands-on

0.phoneArena14 Mar 2013, 18:32posted on

Taking 2012 by storm, Samsung catapulted all the way to the top last year, as the Korean based company delivered timeless devices over and over again with little pause for its rivals to combat its insatiable appetite. Claiming victory while looking down from the pinnacle of the mountain, Samsung as a whole transformed from being a competitor trying to emerge from a heap of hard rollers, to the one taking ownership of the crown in the smartphone kingdom. Today marks yet another triumphant push forward in retaining that prestigious crown, seeing that the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S IV just became official-official...

have been using an s2 and note 1 recently,inbetween having my own s3,perks of being in the industry. If you notice i left a question mark after the note 3 as that as of now is still an uncertainty in design and feature aspects. yes it might well follow in its predessors in following the s class range design,it may also by the first with flexible amoleds

The biggest problem with the One is HTC's lack of strategic direction ie who do they want to sell the phone to??

1. with HOX, HTC no doubt spent a lot of time and money on the premium quality and good looks, but didn't provide the marketing resource to make the world recognise it (the people that want premium quality and great design aka those that bought the iPhone), so it didn't sell well to them.

2. It didn't have things like user replaceable battery, mSD slots, best hardware, timely upgrades or the power efficiency for tech users, hence they didn't buy it either.

As such, with all its positives, the phone sold poorly. I fear HTC hasn't learnt it's lesson just yet. Even now, no one around me seems to know what a HTC One is, but they all know about the S3 and S4 is, so I think the numbers are going to speak for themselves.

Having 2600 mAH means NOTHING if it's not used effeciently, which we will not know until the phone has been reviewed through an intensive battery test. (And no Phonearena, your piss poor "battery test" for the HTC One does not count, it's obivious that you rushed the article out of the door for clicks and to have it out before the SGIV event. It wasn't even a test just a "the batter lasts a whole day...pretty much" but I digress.)

Second the difference between DDR 2 and DDR3 is not large enough to be proud, especially on a phone that has an operating system that runs very well on 1GB of [insert aany general mediocre RAM here]. This is akin to having 16GB of RAM on your computer. 8 GB is truly the most needed and beyond that is just bragging rights that honestly have no bearing on your ability or inability to run applications.

Lastly, no ****ing duh. The HTC One has a dual stereo speaker on the front. This alone is a considerable amount of spacial real estate (for a lack of better words). The screen sizes are personal choices, so I will leave it at that. Bigger is not always better, as I am more affectionate to about 4.3" as that is the G-spot of screen sizes for me and my hands.

The rest of the stuff is software based and honestly, means nothing. Software on Android is what makes Android so great. You can make your phone almost anything, and by the time that phone launches the APKs will be available for S Translator and Air View (as I'm sure they are just using the proximity sensor for it, but hey, prove me wong) adn the other "revolutionary" things in the SGIV.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but the HTC One is far from owned.

They both look like great handsets and it will come down to the perosnal perference of the end user. I prefer a metal finish for quality in my hand, but my best friend loves plastic as it is just better for his needs.

If the 2600 mah means nothing then the 2300 mah the HTC One has over the 2050 mah Droid DNA doesn't mean anything either. Either way, the power saving cores and the screen will save battery as well. Of course 2600 mah means something.

Second, DDR3 vs DDR2 ram makes a HUGE difference, on my PC at least. Saying ddr3 is nothing is like saying USB 3.0 is nothing. The speed difference is crazy.

3rd, I would take a more compact phone over dual stereo speakers any day. If HTC went with that I would give the size category to HTC but unfortunately they didn't. I rather the GS4 be 4.5 inch or 4.7 and even smaller myself. But if you must have that huge size I would take the bigger screen. It is smaller than the 4.8 inch GS3, which was in turn smaller than the 4.5 inch Lumia 920. The dimensions are impressive.

I forgot to mention the superior button placement and the useful physical home button of the GS4. Plus it is thinner at 7.9mm. The S3 felt great in my hand and the One X and 8x felt alright.

How good the battery is dpends on UI optimisation. To make a comment like HTC got owned is plainly lame, that is your opinion and like a**eholes everyone has one! You like the S4, all well and good but accept others do not and prefer other qualities. HTC One and XZ for me and I am happy as Larry! One is owned by me and the other soon will be! S4, a most definite ignore from me as it has absolutely nothing of interest to me including floating touch which was on last year's Xperia Sola!

I'm not understanding how, in this case, you're equating screen size to how a phone feels in your hand. I think the point was that the s3 has a larger screen without increasing the size and weight of the phone.

well you're the only one that seems to think so. everywhere i go there are different tones of disappointment in the Galaxy S4. all Samsung has done is bring the specs up to par and shoehorn more TouchWiz features most of which require either more accessories or somebody else with a Galaxy S4 all over the Android 4.2 experience and i don't know if you guys noticed this but Google was hardly mentioned if at all in the entire presentation. the HTC One brings the more compelling package in more areas and i'm sure the Motorola X will too.

Well, its not that the GS4 is any better than the htc one, i mean, they both have there goods and there bads, but preferably myself, id go with the GS4 only because of samsungs ui and hardware. Samsung seems more focused more on the "all around" side of devices compared to HTC focusing more on the multi-media side of devices. Personally, i feel like i can get more done.. FASTER on the samsung galaxy s4.

I still say that mah on battery doesn't make much of a difference. Apple proved that in iphone 4s and 5 by putting a 1450 mah battery. Oh and the battery is lpddr3( low power ddr3) ram. Still good but wont have much difference compared to other high ends like htc one. If i had the money for one i would always choose the htc one above the sgs3s.

Ugh. I really don't mind the plastic, it's the gloss that gets me. Otherwise, seems like a nice device with equally nice software. Going to get some hands on time with it thought before I choose it over the One.

I'm going to buy a device within the next couple months (probably the GS4 or the One), then sell it later in the year for the Motorola X or the Nexus 5. I can't wait any longer for an upgrade, my GS2 is getting old.

Unfortunately I could still wait for an upgrade. My HOX is working better than ever. If Motorola and Google subsidize Motorola X heavily like rumor says... My wait for an upgrade may come to a halt earlier than expected. If I do upgrade right now, HTC One will grab me if s-off could be achieved (I just realized that I'm a custom ROM addict) and if they show better video samples than what's available already. If this was 2012 and SGS4 was SGS3... I would of placed my preorder for this already.

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